Bette Davis selflessly endures all manner of womanly woes in director Edmund Goulding's remake of his own silent film, THE TRESPASSER. As Mary, a gangster's widow trying to go straight, she works loyally and hard for a married lawyer (Ian Hunter), goes to night school, and falls in love with rich, irresponsible Jack (Henry Fonda). When she and Jack try to elope, his controlling dad (Donald Crisp) tracks them down and annuls their marriage, accusing her of gold-digging based on her tawdry past. Mary’s too proud to ask for a cent in alimony, or to mention she's pregnant with Jack's child. Instead she has the child in secret, and winds up the center of a scandal when her boss dies and leaves her all his money. It's excessively melodramatic for sure, but Davis makes the overwrought pathos enjoyable thanks to her superb acting chops. She has some good support in this department from Anita Louise as a wheelchair-bound socialite and Mary Phillips as Mary's long-suffering companion. Sidney Toler, out of his Charlie Chan makeup, also gives a brief appearance as a detective hired by Jack’s father.

release year: 1937

star(s): Bette Davis    Henry Fonda